Explore how Dickens mocks Mr Gradgrind and his world in the first three chapters of Hard Times.

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Explore how Dickens mocks Mr Gradgrind and his world in the first three chapters of Hard Times.

Dickens mocks Mr Gradgrind through his speeches and his obsession with facts. Gradgrind is described as a “square wall of a forehead” this is showing how he needs everything to be perfect and ruled off, just like his house which is the same. “his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves” dickens even uses this as a way to ridicule Gradgrind by say his eyes are spacious, where most people light up with enthusiasm and excitement but Gradgrind could not because he is just filled with facts and has had no imagination. In the second paragraph of the novel dickens keeps on saying “the emphasis was helped” he does this to show how ridiculous Gradgrind is when he keeps on insisting on facts. When Dickens is describing Gradgrinds hair he says “which bristled on the skirts of his bald head” Dickens has made the reader believe that he is full of facts and straight-ruled like his garden but his hair shows he is not by the way it bristles. This indicates that he may not always be correct but as long as he speaks loudly and confidently people will think he is. Gradgrinds head is “all covered in knobs” showing that he is so full of facts he is bursting. He is also made to feel ugly because of how Dickens relates his head to “scarcely warehouse room for the hard facts stored inside” the words hard and warehouse makes him seem very bland and cold. His body is described as a “square coat, square legs , square shoulder” the repeating of square makes it stand out more how like his garden and school room are very boring and just factual.      

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Dickens also ridicules Gradgrind by his actions. Some of Gradgrinds first words, of the novel, are “what I want is facts” this is telling the children that they do not have to understand all the work as long as they can keep on telling facts. This is a contradiction of what school should be like because people are sent to school to increase there understanding of life. In the assembly Gradgrind picks on Sissy Jupe because he has never seen her before, he calls her girl number twenty. This could be getting her ready for working in the mills ...

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